BOSTON: Dementia patients and their families are suffering unnecessarily because of a lack of suitable end-of-life care, according to a leading charity.
The report says that although dementia is regarded as a terminal illness, less than a fifth of patients with the condition receive palliative care before they die.
Some receive inadequate pain relief, or are unable to contribute to decisions about their care, and many skilled nursing homes are effectively acting as hospices, without being designed to do so, and without suitable specialist staff according to a report published by the charity…